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You sound like a cop who abused the populace. And FWIW, cops have a lot of PTSD symptoms and many of them have alcohol and substance abuse problems due to seeing horrific things so I feel for them and many times can even overlook some of their behavior that may be related to experiencing horrible, traumatic events as I will in regards to your comments because I know that if you are being truthful, you are just desensitized to suffering due to your occupation and that is a mechanism that you needed to have to get your job done.
But the documentary my husband watched with me dealt with people being hacked to death with machetes and there was actual footage of the people being hacked to death. Most people would have issues viewing something like that if they have never witnessed such horrific violence. He doesn't have issues with movies as those are fake and not real, but this was actual footage of real people being hacked to death and murdered with machetes. It bothered me too, but I knew that those scenes were in it and prepared myself to deal with it. Hubby at times chides me about my nerdiness and love of Antiques Roadshow and documentaries as the primary source of my media viewing. During the mid 90s when the genocide took place in Rwanda, he was in college and not paying much attention to it but wanted to watch the documentary with me to learn a bit more about it and the violence and craziness was just too much for him to take. Especially since many of the children and other relatives of the victims were still alive and they were interviewed and spoke about their lives since those times. Some of the murderers were interviewed as well. It was a good documentary because it showed how easily people who are otherwise, decent people can turn into desensitized, murderous monsters.
Even Romeo Dallaire, one of my heroes, finally lost it and ended up an alcoholic sleeping on park benches for a while. You can only see so much of it before you go mad.
My sister was a returning student a decade ago. After 20 years, she went back to college and finally got her degree.
While it never bothered her when she first attended college, the second time around, she developed severe test anxieties, partly due to the changes that have occurred in teaching over the years.
She overcome her anxieties with the help of one of the guys she works for- a psychologist. He helped a lot. When I asked her about her treatment, she said she was treated in much the same way the Doc treats his PTSD patients. She said her stresses responded better because they weren't as severe as most PTSD.
In her case, notification wouldn't have helped, but she was a case worker before going back to school, and said there are a lot of PTSD vets and other victims going back to college now. There are a lot of adult civilians who suffer PTSD from many causes these days.
I think warnings for some courses and/or class sessions would be good. There is a lot of stuff taught that could put a vet right back into the sandbox, and with a warning, a potential disaster could be avoided. Colleges would have to come up with options for these students so they can learn what they need with less potential for a class blowup, but that could be accomplished easily enough; a one to one with a teacher, for example, or even as a member of a much smaller group that a full classroom wouldn't be hard to do.
it would certainly be better than having a student completely tip over and pack a gun to class. For sure, triggers are many, varied, and can be quite subtle, but avoiding the obvious ones is a good thing for both the student and for the safety of others.
Pre-registration counseling would help as well; some majors must be greater stressors than others.
Even Romeo Dallaire, one of my heroes, finally lost it and ended up an alcoholic sleeping on park benches for a while. You can only see so much of it before you go mad.
For those who don't know Romeo Dallaire is a Canadian who was in charge of the failed UN Peace keeping force in Rwanda.
As stated, he had a breakdown as a result of the traumatic events in Rwanda and eventually developed PTSD and even attempted suicide.
He was in the documentary as well and still is active in human rights issues.
If she was that uncomfortable, she could get up and leave. Did no one tell her that she was an adult?
When I am unexpectedly confronted with violent rape scenes, I sometimes can make it out of the room. But sometimes I throw up. Sometimes I start to cry and shake. It ALWAYS means I will have a few nights of nightmares. Why does it bother you that some people are seriously disturbed by reminders of sexual trauma? It is no skin off anyone's back to give a trigger warning. 1 in 4 COLLEGE AGED WOMEN have already experienced a rape or attempted rape. This is no small group. More than 75% of those who report rape (which, remember, is only a small percentage of those who are actually raped) are under 25.
Have you ever been the victim of a rape? You can't possibly understand what it is like if you have not. By the time I was 22, I had been raped once at 17 (losing my virginity, becoming pregnant, and miscarrying the only pregnancy I will ever experience in the process), had very traumatic interactions with police officers who did not take me seriously, and was sexually assaulted several more times - including one event that happened while studying abroad that made me leave my program early and left me afraid to be alone in the dark for close to a year of therapy afterward. I hate feeling the need to clarify, but I was not inebriated or in situations in ANY of the occurrences that would put me at risk. Hell, in the latter situation, myself and 5 friends were sexually assaulted and threatened with violence when a man broke into our hostel room.
I have to investigate all tv and movies before watching them. My boyfriend often pre-screens movies so he can fast forward through rape or assault scenes. I can think of nothing worse than being trapped in the middle of an aisle in a lecture hall where a quick exit is not possible and I am very likely to draw unwanted attention to myself. Very few people know my history and I absolutely would not have wanted to be "outed" due to a panic attack.
I should note that I also have serious PTSD stemming from cancer treatment but would not expect a trigger warning there (though luckily I am surrounded by decent people who are respectful - "trigger warning" is in our daily vocabulary about a LOT of issues). I throw up at any media reference to chemo. It's uncontrollable unless I preemptively take an anxiety med (to watch the film 50/50 for instance). While I would welcome broader trigger warnings that warn about medical procedures (because it's not exactly rare for people to develop PTSD following serious illness or emergency medical procedures), I also recognize that this is not a huge portion of the population.
But you know, go on thinking those of us who have survived serious trauma are "candy asses." If you have been through serious trauma and handle it differently, props to you. Everyone handles it differently and particularly in a college classroom setting, it is likely that the trauma is fresh.
When I am unexpectedly confronted with violent rape scenes, I sometimes can make it out of the room. But sometimes I throw up. Sometimes I start to cry and shake. It ALWAYS means I will have a few nights of nightmares. Why does it bother you that some people are seriously disturbed by reminders of sexual trauma? It is no skin off anyone's back to give a trigger warning. 1 in 4 COLLEGE AGED WOMEN have already experienced a rape or attempted rape. This is no small group. More than 75% of those who report rape (which, remember, is only a small percentage of those who are actually raped) are under 25.
Have you ever been the victim of a rape? You can't possibly understand what it is like if you have not. By the time I was 22, I had been raped once at 17 (losing my virginity, becoming pregnant, and miscarrying the only pregnancy I will ever experience in the process), had very traumatic interactions with police officers who did not take me seriously, and was sexually assaulted several more times - including one event that happened while studying abroad that made me leave my program early and left me afraid to be alone in the dark for close to a year of therapy afterward. I hate feeling the need to clarify, but I was not inebriated or in situations in ANY of the occurrences that would put me at risk. Hell, in the latter situation, myself and 5 friends were sexually assaulted and threatened with violence when a man broke into our hostel room.
I have to investigate all tv and movies before watching them. My boyfriend often pre-screens movies so he can fast forward through rape or assault scenes. I can think of nothing worse than being trapped in the middle of an aisle in a lecture hall where a quick exit is not possible and I am very likely to draw unwanted attention to myself. Very few people know my history and I absolutely would not have wanted to be "outed" due to a panic attack.
I should note that I also have serious PTSD stemming from cancer treatment but would not expect a trigger warning there (though luckily I am surrounded by decent people who are respectful - "trigger warning" is in our daily vocabulary about a LOT of issues). I throw up at any media reference to chemo. It's uncontrollable unless I preemptively take an anxiety med (to watch the film 50/50 for instance). While I would welcome broader trigger warnings that warn about medical procedures (because it's not exactly rare for people to develop PTSD following serious illness or emergency medical procedures), I also recognize that this is not a huge portion of the population.
But you know, go on thinking those of us who have survived serious trauma are "candy asses." If you have been through serious trauma and handle it differently, props to you. Everyone handles it differently and particularly in a college classroom setting, it is likely that the trauma is fresh.
Life's a *****, isn't it? I've worked rapes, and believe me, I do have compassion for victims of it. But at the same time, the world doesn't stop spinning because something bad happened to someone.
I have experienced things most couldn't even imagine. Part of being an adult is dealing with it and moving on with your life. Needing a "trigger warning" is not moving on.
As an aside, maybe learning a few of the myriad ways you can kill someone with just your hands would be a good idea for you. You apparently have some pretty terrible luck.
What a bunch of cry babies. Try doing a medical residency in the late 70s or early 80s if you want a helping of "post traumatic stress disorder".
In the words of my past chairman, "Fear is one of the greatest motivators in life".
Obviously, you had a hard time dealing with it.
PTSD is big, bad, and tricky, and I think it's much more widespread than is realized.
One of my best friends, an emergency room specialist, recognized early he was a victim of PTSD, and chose his specialty as a way of trying to overcome his own while helping others. He was notorious for his emergency room blowups, but was the biggest lifesaver the local medical center has ever had.
People would walk up to him in public and start crying because he had saved their life, or someone else's life, all the time. it embarrassed the crap out of him.
… and he died early from the stress from within and without.
ROFLMAO after reading this, I am reduced to a helpless blubbering blob. OP you really should have included a trigger warning on this. What is 'cisssexism' anyway?
LOL I learned about this word last month. Evidently it's discrimination against people who are born the gender that they are or something like that. So for example non-trangender women are cisgender. It's all very confusing. I've only seen the term used by radical liberals on Twitter.
Trigger warnings are nothing new, I took a Sociology of Sexuality that had frank talk about sexuality in fall 2008. Guess what, there was a warning in the course catalog and again in the syllabus. Why, so people didn't complain if they were prudes or even sexual assault victims and didn't want to learn about it.
I have no problem with them because quite frankly you know what you are getting into better than just reading the blurb in the course catalog. My mother took my brother and I to see Not Another Teen Movie and she was grossed out by it and didn't realize it was as grey (even in some cases black) humorous as it was despite the R-rating (mind you the ratings for movies only recently switched to why it is rated say R unlike tv content who had that fairly early on.)
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